A visit to my childhood home taught me how to grieve

Recently, I found myself standing in front of my old house in Philadelphia. From 1966, when I was 4, until 1969, when we moved to Delaware County, I lived in the two-story quasi-Victorian on the 5400 block of North 12th Street. In the 50 years since we left, I've re-imagined that house a million times through the forgiving lens of memory. That house was beloved.

Seeing it in person, the house look...